Try new exercises to improve memory and thinking, new guidelines

For patients with mild cognitive impairment, don’t be surprised if your health care provider rules exercise rather than medication. A new doctor’s guide points out that they should recommend exercise twice a week to patients with mild cognitive impairment to improve memory and thinking.

The recommendations are part of a new guide to light cognitive impairment, published in the December 27 online journal neurology, which is a medical journal of the American academy of neurology.

“Regular physical activity has been proved with heart health benefits, and now we can say that exercise can also help improve memory in patients with mild cognitive dysfunction,” Ronald Petersen, md, PhD, lead author and director of the alzheimer’s disease research center, the Mayo clinic and aging at the Mayo clinic research. “Good for your heart and good for your brain.” Dr. Petersen is professor Cora Kanow of alzheimer’s disease research.

Generally speaking, these changes are not serious enough to interfere with daily life and daily activities. However, mild cognitive impairment may increase the risk of progression of dementia in alzheimer’s or other neurological diseases. But some people with mild cognitive impairment will never get worse, and some people will eventually get better.

Dr. Peterson encourages people to do aerobic exercises: 150 minutes a week, brisk, jogging, whatever you like, 30 minutes, 5 or 50 minutes, three times. The effort should be enough to make you sweat a little, but not so hard that you can’t talk. “Exercise may slow down the progression from mild cognitive dysfunction to dementia,” he said.

Dietary changes or medications are not recommended. The U.S. food and drug administration does not approve drugs for mild cognitive impairment.

According to the American institute of neurology, more than 60% of the worldwide in more than 60 people have mild cognitive dysfunction, and with the growth of the age, the illness is more common. More than 37 percent of people over 85 have it.

With this popularity, finding lifestyle factors that may slow cognitive impairment may have a significant impact on individuals and societies, Dr. Petersen noted.

“We don’t have to think of aging as a passive process, we can do something about aging,” he said. So if I was destined to have cognitive impairment at the age of 72, then I could exercise and push it back to 75 or 78. This is a big deal.